Disney Plus gets bigger as Star lands on streaming service today

But cartoons, capes and clone troopers aren’t everyone’s cup of tea - and that’s an issue Disney seems keen to rectify in its ever-increasing remit. That’s because, today, the company has launched a brand-new tier of service called Star on Disney Plus - one that’s aimed specifically at a grown-up audience.

If you’re already a Disney Plus subscriber, the good news is that you don’t need to do anything: Star isn't a bolt-on service. It will automatically appear on the platform as of, well, now. You can read our how do I get Disney Plus on my TV explainer to get the streaming service set up on your smart TV.

• Sign up to Disney+ now for £79.90 for a year or £7.99 a month

What's included with Star on Disney+?

This new tier of content will bring you thousands of hours of material from Disney’s various creative studios, including Disney Television Studios, FX, 20th Century Studios and 20th Television. Disney Plus subscribers will now have access to much-loved shows like Atlanta, 24, How I Met Your Mother, Lost and Desperate Housewives.

A sizeable collection of films is also included in the Star service, from '90s blockbusters like Braveheart and Independence Day to newer releases such as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. (You can read through our full lists of Disney + Star shows and Disney + Star movies.)

As you can see, Star’s new material is a different flavour to the family-centric material we usually associate with Disney. It’s not all pre-existing content, either - a whole roster of new TV shows lie in wait for subscribers. There’s Big Sky, a new detective drama from the writer of Big Little Lies and The Undoing, as well as Helstrom, Marvel’s TV foray into supernatural horror. There’s also Love, Victor – a spin-off of the well-received coming-out high-school drama Love, Simon.

There's also the animated Solar Opposites, a comedy about aliens stranded in middle America that comes from Rick And Morty creator Justin Roiland. Animated, yes; family-friendly, we doubt it. On that note: any parents who are nervous about their kids watching inappropriate content on Star, they will be pleased to hear that Disney is also introducing a content-lock feature.

Star is being released across Europe, Canada and New Zealand at the same time as the UK. Anyone with their eye on the wider situation will see that the new service is clearly being positioned as an alternative to Hulu, a Disney-owned platform that contains many of the shows you’ll see under the Star banner, but is only available to US subscribers.

It’s also, of course, another bold move in Disney’s endless expansionism. You can check out our list of upcoming Disney movies for a list of what the entertainment titan has planned this year. They won’t all be released on Disney Plus, but with the re-opening of cinemas still an uncertain time away, we’re quietly confident that many of these new releases will find a home on the streaming platform.

• Sign up to Disney+ now for £79.90 for a year or £7.99 a month

Curious? Don’t miss our pick of the best shows on Disney Plus and best movies on Disney Plus, or check out our full TV Guide